Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to data transmission with multiple carriers, and, more particularly to communication devices capable of providing multimedia broadcast/multicast services (MBMS) and unicast services with multiple carriers and methods thereof.
Description of the Related Art
In many communication systems, receivers may receive unicast, broadcast, or multicast data transmissions. For example, Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) is a service in which base stations transmit information of general interest on a commonly used channel, so that mobile devices that subscribe to the services can access the MBMS channel to obtain the service of interest, such as daily news or baseball game scores.
A Long Term Evolution (LTE) system is an evolved next-generation wireless communication system proposed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The LTE system provides high-speed low-latency packet-based communications at a data rate of up to 100 Mbps. The LTE system includes an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) having a plurality of evolved Node-Bs (eNBs), which communicate wirelessly with a plurality of user equipment (UEs) though uplink and downlink radio channels. The eNB may control a cell or a plurality of cells. An cell only broadcasting the MBMS is referred to as an MBMS only cell, a carrier originating from the MBMS only cell is referred to as an MBMS only component carrier.
A legacy UE compliant with older versions and including 3GPP release 9 only acquires data services from a single carrier; thus, the legacy UE cannot receive other types of data services upon camping onto the MBMS only component carrier. Whereas a UE compliant with versions after 3GPP release 9 supports multiple component carriers, capable of receiving data services from other component carriers when obtaining the MBMS from the MBMS only component carrier. Thus, communication devices capable of acquiring the MBMS according to the MBMS supportability of base stations and methods thereof are in need.